This invention relates to a method for attaching cutting tips to the teeth of cutting blades. Multi-toothed cutting blades, for example saw blades, having separately attached cutting tips of a material much harder than that of the blade are well-known to the art. The tips may be attached by soldering, brazing, or electrically welding the tips to the blade teeth as disclosed by Drake U.S. Pat. No. 2,714,317, Stevenson U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,934, and Sawamura et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,718,799, respectively. Alternatively, the cutting tips may be formed directly on the blade teeth by depositing globules of molten material thereon and then, after each globule has cooled, shaping and dressing it into a tip as disclosed by Connoy, U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,310. Still further, the tip may be formed by attaching one end of an elongate rod of tip material to the blade tooth and then either breaking the remainder of the rod away from the tip as disclosed by Kolb U.S. Pat. No. 3,295,396, or cutting the remainder of the rod from the tip as disclosed by Anderson U.S. Pat. No. 3,034,378.
A principal disadvantage of the known prior art cutting tips and the methods employed for their attachment to the teeth of multi-toothed cutting blades is the difficulty attendant with handling and precisely positioning small irregularly shaped objects. Normally this difficulty necessitates that the objects, i.e., the cutting tips, be separately handled which is time-consuming and inefficient. It also requires, as a practical matter, that the tips be attached to the cutting blade one tooth at a time as exemplified by Drake and Stevenson. Even in those instances where automatic means have been devised for dispensing, positioning and attaching the cutting tips to the blade teeth, as exemplified by Sawamura, the device employed still positions and handles each tip separately, requiring large and complex handling apparatus which effectively also limits the attachment of the cutting tips to the cutting blade one tooth at a time.
Forming the tips from a molten globular material, as disclosed by Connoy or from a broken or sawn-off portion of an elongate rod, as disclosed by Kolb and Anderson, respectively, requires the additional extensive step of shaping the tip material into a cutting tip after attachment to the blade, which is also inefficient.
Accordingly, a need exists for a means and method of rapidly and efficiently attaching cutting tips to a plurality of cutting teeth of a multi-toothed cutting blade as well as to the cutting portion of single-toothed cutting tools which eliminates the separate handling of individual cutting tips while at the same time minimizing the operations that must be performed upon each tip subsequent to its attachment to the blade or tool.